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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KFileDialog toolbar
From:       Troels Tolstrup <troels () tolstrup ! org>
Date:       2002-06-29 21:27:16
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On Saturday 29 June 2002 18:34, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> On Saturday 29 June 2002 10:34 am, Marten Klencke wrote:
> > You're definitely right :-) I've wondered the same thing myself, as
> > making a new directory is a very common task. It is not directly
> > obvious that the new directory-button can be found in the
> > gear-menu.
> > (this is btw also very annoying in Mozilla. No new-directory button
> > in the save-as box).
>
> I really wonder what the concept behind the Gear-menu is. I expected
> it to be some sort of "configuration" menu, but in that case "New
> Directory" and "Delete" don't belong there at all. Neither does
> "Properties" actually.
>
> Hmm.. it seems the Alt-return shortcut is broken too.

I have problems with the gear menu as well. For me it looks like a 
"throw everything that we dont know what to do about into this menu" 
kind of thing.

After playing with the idea for a bit i think the following organization 
of the buttons and menu options would be better. It only add one extra 
button compared to the current layout.

I would have the following buttons:

top, back, forward, home, refresh, bookmarks.
Those are just like they are today.

Then:

view, sort, sidebar, preview, new directory.

view and sort would be menus, sidebar and preview would be, er, like the 
preview one today, im afraid i dont know the name of that button type. 
and new directory would just be a normal button.

This means however that delete is gone as an option, but could still be 
found in the rmb context menu. If this isnt enough then i guess the new 
directory button could instead be a file operations menu, but i cant 
really see why there should be a delete option in a file open/save 
dialog, and i also think the new directory button should either not be 
there, or at least be greyed out when the dialog is in open mode as i 
cant see how it is useful to be able to open directories in an open 
file dialog.

I would have the following in the view menu:

[x] Short view
[x] Detailed view
- -------------------
[x] Show hidden files
[x] Separate directories

and the sort menu would be like the gear -> sort menu is today. 
Alternatively sort could be a sub menu in the view menu.

This layout fixes the same thing that Aaron just fixed in a different 
way. (all view related things are put together) and it gets rid of the 
pretty confusing gear menu. It does contain all the options i can find 
in the current dialog, except it doesnt have a button for delete, but 
delete from within a open/save dialog is probably a power user feature 
and power users should figure out how to use the RMB context menu 
instead. (i know my mom wouldnt figure out how to use it, but she 
wouldnt use these buttons at all i think as she isnt good at 
recognizing icons)

There are some behavior problems in the current dialog that i would like 
to see changed as well.

When you are using the separate directories option you cant see the 
previews. I assume it is because the dialog would then be too wide 
which is fair enough, but it would be nice if you could decide if you 
wanted to turn the sidebar off instead or simply allow it to be too 
wide if the user wants it as i think both the separate directory option 
and the preview panel are very nice.

But if it is kept as it is now then i at least think that the preview 
toolbar button should be disabled while using this option, and the 
"directories first" option should be removed from the sort menu.

I also very much think that the short view should scroll vertically 
instead of horizontically. I actually find the horizontal scrolling a 
bit confusing as in all other places im so used to scrolling DOWN 
through a list. It also makes using the scroll wheel harder as you need 
to place the pointer on top of the scrollbar. It is especailly annoying 
when the dialog is not very big and you only have one column on the 
screen at a time. I cant think of any other place where i have to 
scroll sideways through a list.

Another thing, that i guess is a necesary evil, but that i dont even 
really understand =) and i know the normal user will understand it even 
less, is the encoding drop down. Is it really needed? Could it be 
placed a bit more out of the way? I would imagine that a standard 
encoding could be taken from your locale settings, and i would hope 
this option could be hidden somewhere, anywhere =) Is it correct that 
it is only really useful for those who need to be able to view both 
"english like" languages and "more exsotic" languages, for instance 
chinese? **

And finally i think it would be nice if "icon view" could be an option 
too as i would much rather have inline thumbnails as in konqueror than 
the current preview panel.

**) At least chinese is exsotic to me, a dumb european, speaking a 
language that less than one in 1000 on this planet speaks, now who is 
exsotic =)

Mvh
Troels
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